Right then, I’m looking for some inspiration to lose some weight and get fit again…but….I just don’t know where to start with what type of healthy eating plan?

I have seen loads of people get slating on here for this sort of post, but I am hoping that you can see that I really need some help with this and I can get some really useful tips and where I might be able to find out what would be best for me and my circumstances?

This is where I am at:

1. I am overweight @ circa 15st 12lbs and 6ft.

2. I am in a VERY busy job, starting work early & finishing late.

3. I will be exercising:
a) Riding at least once a week and I’m going to try and walk a couple of miles every day.
b) Gym three times a week for cardio
c) Swimming once or twice a week.

4. I have no idea where to start with a diet, should I:
a) Go for a low fat diet
b) Go for a low carb diet
c) What other options are there?

5. Is there somewhere I can go to get a complete diet plan with recipes and meal plans day by day etc, that you have used that you would recommend?

Please help if you can.

Cheers.

PS: As well as losing weight and getting fitter, I also want to get ‘bike’ fit!

just eat less

brakes – Member

eat less

Genius! 😕 Thanks for your help.

Just eat as you are going to when you aren’t ‘dieting’. Cut quantity and eat fresh fruit , veg , pasta,rice fish, bit of quality red meat etc. Dont use cream – cheese not much butter etc 🙂

theres no magic pill for what you want to achieve and theres so many different routes that you can take to get to your goal.

so if i had to give one simple piece of advice to get you there it would be to start a diary with all your exercise and all your food and drink that you consume.
This will help you realise what areas need improving and give a more honest record of your lifestyle.

Others can then tell you what to eat and how to exercise, if only it were that easy
good luck

Most people will lose weight if they consciously cut out as much fat & sugar as they can

the rest will take care of itself

I find myself sliding towards the camp of ‘just eat less’ too….
In doing this you will:
-Consume less calories than before : calories = energy = used or stored (as fat)
-Probably be a bit hungry. No one dies of being hungry. People die of severe malnutrition. You are unlikely to become severely malnourished.
-Replace the ‘deficit’ in ‘intake’ calories by storing less/burning more fat. This is called weight loss.

As long as you don’t cut your calorie intake by a drastic amount (talking more than 20%), and you maintain that approach, you will lose weight…

DrP

Useful tips – thanks.

dobo – Member

so if i had to give one simple piece of advice to get you there it would be to start a diary with all your exercise and all your food and drink that you consume.
This will help you realise what areas need improving and give a more honest record of your lifestyle.

Good idea – thank you.

DrP – Member

As long as you don’t cut your calorie intake by a drastic amount (talking more than 20%), and you maintain that approach, you will lose weight…

Is that right….20%? I’ve always cut about 1000 calories, i.e. down to 1500 a day, but have found that I can’t sustain it – is that because I have tried to cut to much?

Well, losing 5-10% of bodyweight in 10-14 days puts you at risk of metabolic complications of dieting (note – puts you AT RISK, not will deffo cause it!).

Like I say, “it took a fair amount of time to get chubby – why not accept it’ll take a fair amount of time to [healthily and sustainably] get less tubby…?”

There is NO WAY you would sustain a reduction in 1000kcal/day of ‘healthy’ weight loss – hence, I imagine, you original post…

DrP

One word for you.

iDave.

It works extremely well. Much better than limited calories.

I am a scientist not a fad dieter.

I have filled my face on iDave and still lost 3-4kg in 3 weeks. I cannot stress enough how much easier it is than just restricting calories.

Thanks DP – makes sense!

molgrips – Member

iDave.

iDave?

Forum search for iDave diet.

I’ve cut out bread completely for the last 7 weeks. Also cut out crisps, although that wasn’t much of an issue, as I eat a power of bread, and just the odd pack of crisps.

I’m a similar size and weight to you, and I’ve lost 9lbs in those 7 weeks. Not done any more exercise than normal, and still having 5 or 6 beers over the weekend.

I could lose more weight, yed, but I wanted to change my eating habits to something that I can sustain long term, not a fad diet that would piss me off.

Nobeerinthefridge – Member

I’ve cut out bread completely for the last 7 weeks

Crisps, no issues giving up – BUT, bread? Mmmm? Suppose I’ll have too!

I’ve recently lost 5 stone to drop from 19 stone to 14 so know exactly where you are coming from…

I went at it with very little thought other than getting out on my bike and watching what I ate.

Stay away from cheap processed food including sugary sweets/drinks. Drink as much water as you can take and get out on the bike or to the gym when ever you can.

Initially I over did it and suffered because of it, now I make sure I have rest days twice a week but work hard the rest of the week. I’ve found I get more benefit from the training sessions that way as I can put more into them.

If you really really need someone to do a diet for you either find a local nutritionist or a personal trainer who should both be able to come up with ideas for you. Be warned though, I had a diet done by a friend who is a PT and it wasn’t very different from what I would eat when eating healthy anyway and he would normally of charged for writing it!

Last of all enjoy it, if you find it’s becoming a bore then change sports, have a rest or have a curry and train it off the next day.

The iDave diet:

No white carbs (potatoes, pasta, rice, bread)
No cereal
No fruit
No dairy apart from eggs and cottage cheese
No drinking carbs (ie pop, beer, milk etc), can only drink black coffee, black tea, red wine or water.

You can have carbs when exercising and just after.
You must eat loads of pulses and legumes.
Snack on nuts

It’s amazingly effective.

It also works half as well if you do half of it – it’s not all or nothing.

I’ve recently lost 5 stone to drop from 19 stone to 14

Well done mate, cracking effort!.

somouk – Member

😯 FLIPPING HECK! Well done on the weight loss!

You are one laid back person! I would love to have your approach to life – and I’m not taking the Mickey! Maybe my work makes me the way I am, perhaps chilling a little would help my situaton?

It’s definitely not a case of one size fits all and you may need to experiment to find what suits you best.

But having lost 2 stone over the course of a year, I would offer the following advice;

Dont try to rush it. Its a bit of a cliche but sustaining any weight loss is about changing your lifestyle/habits.

Dont try to totally elliminate a particular food type, e.g. bread , as it will just feel like you are punishing yourself and when you give in you will feel like you have failed.

Also if you cut out any of the key food groups you may become deficient in certain minerals/nutrients/vitamins and this will upset the finely tuned balance of your hormones/body functions etc. The net result will probably be that you will not be able to sustain the diet.

As stated above, cutback on processed/sugary/high GI foods and eat things that are more sustaining, e.g. porridge for breakfast etc. This will make you feel full for longer and suppress the need for snacking between meals. If you need to snack, go for nuts/seeds etc. I also found dark chocolate really useful in the early stages. It gives you that “sugar hit” but is not moorish like dairy chocolate so one or two squares is normally enough.

I ended up spreading my meals throughout the day, rather than having 2 or 3 big meals and then getting big dips in energy/blood sugar in between. I appreciate that that is not easy with a busy job, but with a bit of forward planning (i.e. taking food to work with you) it is achievable.

Make sure your diet is varied and interesting, that way you will get all the minerals/vitamins etc that you need but it will also be enjoyable to eat.

I ended up going low carb and making sure that I didnt eat “white carbs” after lunchtime. Hence my biggest meal of the day is lunch (as that is when I need most of my food intake) and not before I am about to go to bed.

I also dont believe that you should cut out dairy/fat. Just be sensible. Your body needs some fat to function and natural yoghurt is very good for the gut.

Overall the key is a varied but healthy diet combined with exercise. Common sense really.

Going back to your original question about getting “bike fit”, whilst you appear to be able to fit in quite a variety of exercise in your busy schedule, you only get out on the bike once a week. Goes without saying that you need to probably spend less time in the gym/swimming and more time on the bike.

If that is not possible, try spinning classes. I recently started spinning twice a week and I really notice the difference when I’m out on my bike.

Like one of the other posters, I also kept a diary and found it a really useful monitoring/planning tool.

Good luck.